alright so... the ball has finally started rolling today. My hands have been tied for the past couple days due to the the fact that virtually everything useful is closed here on the weekend. I won't depress you with the details of my unhappiness the first couple days, but to sum up I was not feeling Irún at all and decided to look for an apartment in San Sebastián instead. Ok, so I haven't previously mentioned my working arrangements, but I was assigned to work in two high schools in two separate towns in Guipúzkoa (the province): Errenteria (Basque)/Rentería (Spanish), and Hondarribia (Basque)/Fuenterrabia (Spanish). (A lot of places around here have a Basque name and a Spanish name: Irún seems to be the exception to this. San Sebastián's Basque name is Donostia or Donosti.) So what I did back in Canada was look at a map and pick the town (Irún) that happened to be in between the two. Also, it was larger than the two towns I was supposed to work in. But it turns out that Donostia is only 20 minutes away via Cercanías (regional train run by RENFE, the national train company) from Irún, and is equidistant from Rentería. There are also plenty of buses that run to Hondarribia from Donosti as well. And if anyone's been to Donostia, they know that it's just freakishly gorgeous. So my decision's been made quite easily.
Today I lounged around unshowered till about 12.30pm and then realized I wasn't going to make it to Rentería by 2 if I didn't get my ass in gear, so I fucking bolted it to the train station to catch the train at 13.20. Part of the problem was that I could not for the life of me figure out where the hell A) the Cercanías stop in Rentería actually was, and then, once I figured that out, B) how to get to the school from there. That kind of ate up my morning. Thanks to the goodness/lack of any pressing matters on the part of the people of Errenteria, I managed to make it onto a bus which carried me up some gigantic fucking hills to the high school, which was just letting out by the time I got there. (This is only an adventure insofar as I didn't want to miss Arantxa - my contact at the school - and waste another day. Also, I really am always amazed at how willing Spanish people are to give you directions to places.)
(As a side-note, has anyone else noticed that Spanish people are always late for everything, except for when it comes to leaving work? It hits two and those motherfuckers are outta there. .... Excuse my language, I'm randomly being inspired by Junot Díaz. Go figure.)
Arantxa was the sweetest, most reassuring and most useful person I have met in Spain up till now. (How much praise is that? I'm not even sure myself. She was great, though.) She explained the paperwork I have to do, showed me on a map where to go, gave me information about my orientations next week (one Monday, one Tuesday) and gave me my schedule for working at the school. Then she drove me to Donostia to the university so we could look at apartment listings put up by students, and translated the ones in Basque for me. She also gave me advice about how to get from point A to point B in terms of work, and finally dropped me off 'downtown' so I could get cracking on those apartments. I bought a phone from Movistar - the cheapest one, but it's quite cute and much nicer than my Canadian Koodo one (big surprise there) and commenced the calling. Taken, taken... and finally one that wasn't, one smack dab in the centre that wasn't too expensive at all. Well, it's 280 instead of 350 euros a month for a room.
I hung around town for a while, drinking a coffee by the port, listening to people speak Basque, and finishing up A Streetcar Named Desire, which I had robbed from Evan's basement. I should start reading more plays. That one was excellent. (P.S. Ev.... that's totally not Tennessee Williams on the front, it's Marlon Brando. .... Wait, you were just mocking me before? ... shut up.) I bought a workbook to learn Basque (yeah, I KNOW I'm a loser, you don't have to tell me, guys) and took a walk along Paseo Nuevo, which runs along the water. Can't wait to join those joggers soon.
I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I will as soon as possible. Pictures rarely do justice (especially mine), but I'll do my best.
Finally, for supper I pretty much broke my jaw on a bocadillo de jamón in a delightful taberna where I was able to watch the local drama go down. What is up with that bread... I guess if you grow up eating it you develop some decent chewing strength. I feel like everyone can tell I grew up on soft bread when I try to eat one of those crusty baguette things.
Anyway, the apartment was in the typical Spanish style (does it change anywhere?): dark wooden closets, minute rooms, and a thick cloud of cigarette smoke greeting you at the door. Nevertheless, it's a decent price for a great location, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get a much bigger room anywhere else. Also, there's a decent-sized T.V. and wireless internet... the essentials. There are four people living there, plus me: Juan (from Argentina), Ana (from Burgos), Xabi (don't know where from yet), and some other girl that I didn't meet either. I need to figure out tomorrow exactly what I need for the police, find out if I can get it from the landlady, and then hopefully start moving my stuff over tomorrow.
As much as I'd like to keep looking for apartments, I don't have time and I just want to move out of this damn hostel. At least the crazy lady has moved out. It was fine as long as she was sleeping, but if she woke up, or in the mornings when she was rustling her 15 plastic bags around, there was just this constant stream of... well, something in Spanish, coming out of her mouth. I kind of feel bad for her, but she seemed like she was here on a mission and she's not here now, so she must have accomplished it. Bon voyage.
I need to sleep now. Ah... sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment